We Had a Mud Storm

Just a couple nights ago we had a mud storm in the middle of the night. It was the STRANGEST thing I've ever seen besides a green sky after a tornado. I thought I heard really hard rain - and we just got a new roof so I was a little concerned. 

Woke up in the morning and EVERYTHING outside was covered in a fresh layer of mud.

Apparently what had happened was a dust storm blew in from Kansas and the moisture in the atmosphere grabbed all the dust that was in the air on the way down to earth and that's how you get a mud storm. So gross. I still need to wash my car. 

We're also in a drought and it just hasn't rained enough for anything these days. So that's a little concerning going into the later fall season. Some of the trees dropped their leaves extremely early and were just done with the season already (which I completely understand!). I'm not sure what this will do to the growing season next spring or what will happen to new growth or if anything will be stunted. I suppose we shall see. To help in this drought I've only bagged MAYBE 6 bags of leaves - all extras that don't fit into my composter and keep blowing in from the neighbor's yards. My plan is not to even remove them in the spring and use them all as mulch. I'll have to use a pitchfork to turn them all into the dirt but we'll get there eventually and I know the earth could use a little more love and care.

With construction being done in maybe another 10-12 days, I also have to reseed and put straw all over the backyard to keep the dust down because it's too late for sod. We'll only be able to water for maybe another couple weeks and that's just not enough time to get the sod roots to grow into the sandy soil. So I'm going to do my best to get grass seed down so it can get watered and then go dormant over the winter with straw to keep down the mud and dust and hopefully grow. Whatever it is that we do, I'd really rather not do sod, instead I'd rather do a whole yard of raised beds for vegetables but the kids and Bimmer want grass to play soccer. 

Happy Wednesday!